The Neurogrid – What It Is and What It Is Not

More info on the Neurogrid massively parallel computer. Comparing it to other AI experiments in modeling individual neurons is apt. I compare it to Danny Hillis’s The Connection Machine (TMC) which used ~65k individual 1 bit processors to model neurons. It was a great idea, and experiment, but it never quite got very far into the commercial market.

Some would argue that replicating the human brain in silicon is impossible. However, the folks over at Brains in Silicon of Stanford University might disagree. They’ve created a circuit board capable of simulating one million neurons and up to 6 billion synapses in real-time. Yes, that’s billion with a “B”. They call their new type of computer The Neurogrid.

The Neurogrid board boasts 16 of their Neurocore chips, with each one holding 256 x 256 “neurons”. It attempts to function like a brain by using analog signals for computations and digital signals for communication. “Soft-wires” can run between the silicon neurons, mimicking the brain’s synapses.

Be sure to stick around after the break, where we discuss the limitations of the Neurogrid, along with a video from its creators.